Ok Frank I'm retested and ready postulate.
One thing I've learned about the nature that we are a part of is that there are evolutionary reasons for all life and all the behaviors of such life which in turn means that over billions of years life has evolved and in that process the DNA sequencing of any particular life form is continually transforming based on the demands of the environment that any particular life form struggles to survive in.
Think of the living organisms that make the soil 'alive' or viable in terms of ability to support plant life etc, we apparently don't think of such when we dump things into the soil that would kill such organisms and then we wonder why plants won't grow etc, in response we then add fertilizers etc to try and make plants grow but all the while instead we are just furthering the soils inability to naturally supply the plant, the chain reaction began because we simply didn't understand the soil well enough to start with.
Killing soil is like playing with Lagos compared with genetic engineering and the possible chain reactive effects such could have on life here on earth.
Some might decide that a particular gene etc is of no importance or of no consequence if removed or manipulated in whatever way or replaced with some other gene from a different species of creature or plant etc, yet like with the soil, we simply don't know enough yet to understand what these genetic manipulations might ultimately result in when then put back into the natural processes of evolution.
Nature does what it does in an automatic response based on the 'numbers' it confronts in any given moment and such responses are linked in perpetuity with every other evolving 'number' etc...that calculations of that giant equation are still to us as trying to see and understand the center of our galaxy, let alone the universe.
In other words we are running almost blind into an area that is fraught with land mines and the possibilities that if one mine blows it then will like domino's start setting many more off in the chain reaction.
Don't know the words to use to get this to be understood by you Frank, not saying you should agree, just saying I hope you understand what I'm saying.
One day we might have evolved to a point of better understanding the consequences of our own behavior in all aspects of human life, its then that I believe we will be in a place of possible viable potential to engage this technology if need be to survive.
Try reading this paper, its not as dry as many and gives a certain incite that I think might be helpful.
http://www.evolutionaryethics.com/chapter4.html
